Joining Europe's wave of strike action sparked by high oil
prices, Greece's public utility vehicle drivers and fuel truck
owners have called the first of a series of strikes as of today,
claiming that government taxes and high international oil prices
are putting them out of business.

The drivers are also expressing their opposition to the
government's decision to "open" their profession, a "closed-shop"
one, by no longer requiring a special license. This, the drivers
say, will open the gates of competition, which means lower prices
and improved services.

The strike could seriously disrupt transport and other
services in scenes resembling protests in northern Europe earlier
this month.
At the same time, the oil's surging international price, in
conjunction with the increasing exchange parity of the U.S. dollar
against the drachma, are expected to cause the prices of numerous
products to rise.

According to the Minister of National Economy and Finance
Yiannos Papantoniou, the government is examining the possibility
of implementing measures to support lower income groups, if the
dollar and fuel prices continue to soar. If given the green light,
the measures will be taken within the context of the new state
budget for next year.

Prime Minister Costas Simitis has repeatedly warned that
harsh penalties will be imposed on anyone found to be exploiting
the current situation by profiteering.

A sports cooperation memorandum was signed in Sydney this
weekend between Greece and Australia, aimed at strengthening
bilateral relations in the sector of athletics.

Greece's Deputy Sports Minister George Floridis and
Australian Sports Committee executive director Jim Ferguson signed
the he memorandum which anticipates, among others, the transfer of
know-how, mutual visits by sports officials, the exchange of
sports training programs and information on developing sports,
sports research, organizing joint symposiums, conferences and
conventions and promoting trade relations between the two
countries in the framework of organizing the Olympic Games.

After the signing ceremony, Mr. Floridis hosted a dinner in
honor of the Australian officials at the Athens 2004 Organizing
Committee's hospitality center.

"Extremely proud" of the Greek athletes' victories in the
Sydney Games is the president of the "Athens 2004" Olympic Games
Organizing Committee Yianna Daskalaki-Aggelopoulos, who, in an
exclusive interview with the Macedonian Press Agency, stressed
that she is looking to learn from Australia's apparent unity in
the Games and bring the same spirit of camaraderie to the next
Olympics in Greece.

The Greek athletes have once again made us proud, Ms.
Daskalaki-Aggelopoulos stated, adding that "this means arduous
efforts, unwavering commitment to the target".

This, she said, should give us the impetus to proceed towards
the 2004 Games united, focused on the future and produce similar
results.

"In spite of the hurdles they had to face, the Australians
managed to how a united Australia," Ms. Daskalaki-Aggelopoulos
said, "above all expectations, and which gave an excellent example
to Greece."

When asked if Greece will be able to organize a better
Olympics, having had the experience of Sydney's exemplary
organization, the president of "Athens 2004" responded that "if we
manage to achieve such organization in the Athens Games, which
will also coincide with the Games;' return to Greece, them it will
be something unprecedented. Everything we see around us has to
become a lesson to all of us."

The leader of the main opposition party of New Demcoracy
Costas Karamanlis signed a Church petition calling for a
referendum on whether religious affiliation should remain listed
on the state-issued identification cards.

Accompanied by his wife, Natasha, who also signed the
petition, Mr. Karamanlis told journalists outside a church in the
Athens suburb of Aghia Paraskevi that Greeks have the inalienable
right to do what their consciences dictated and protest government
decisions.

Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece Christodoulos told a
congregation yesterday in Ilioupolis, Athens, that they should
"not substitute the Church's umbrella with nylon or multi-colored
umbrellas."

Former Communist parliamentarian and Athens town councillor
Leon Avdis died of cancer yesterday in an Athens hospital at the
age of 63. His funeral will be held in Athens' first Cemetery
tomorrow at 4 p.m.

Mr. Avdis, a lawyer who enjoyed wide respect across the
political spectrum, was elected to Parliament in 1996 on the Greek
Communist Party (KKE) ticket, but resigned in 1997 to run for
mayor of Athens.

His platform included improving living conditions in run-down
areas and creating bicycle lanes in the capital.

A ten-year-old lioness and a four-year-old lion will be
hosted for a few hours at Thesssaloniki's "Macedonia" airport
today, en route to a better habitat in England.

The two majestic animals were kept at the zoo of Florina,
which recently shut down. Thanks to the efforts of the Born Free
Foundation, an international wildlife charity, the two lions will
be transported by plane to England where they will be taken to a
man-made jungle.

The privatization process for the Hellenic Postal Service
(ELTA) is to get underway in October, where a minority stake of
15% will be sold to a private investor, while the organization's
management will remain in the state's hands.

The process will comprise two phases, commencing with the
international strategic partnership and ending with the listing of
ELTA shares on the Athens bourse.

According to the National Economy and Finance Ministry's
plans, the French, German, Dutch and British postal services have
all expressed an interest in the partnership and are expected to
submit non-binding bids within October. A short list will precede
the binding bids.

Valued at GRD80-100 billion, ELTA's revenue during the first
half of 2000 amounted to approximately GRD59.6 billion, a 7.6
billion increase from last year's comparable time period.

Parliament deputy Vasilis Kedikoglou left the governing
socialist party of PASOK. Mr. Kedikoglou had been expelled from
the party's parliamentary group after a decision by prime minister
and PASOK party leader Kostas Simitis and had been sent before the
party's responsible bodies with the question of expulsion from the
party's ranks.

Mr. Kedikoglou made known his decision to leave PASOK with a
letter addressed to the president, the party's executive bureau
and parliament president Apostolos Kaklamanis.

The week opened for the Athens Stock Exchange with gains of
1.48% and the general index was at 4.151,48 points, while the bank
shares showed the biggest rise. However, the volume of
transactions was low at 82.9 billion drachmas.

Of the stocks trading today 217 recorded gains, 119 had
losses and 38 remained unchanged.

Greek foreign ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis categorically
denied the rumors reported by foreign news agencies according to
which, foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou had a telephone
communication with Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in order
to exert pressures on him to accept any election result. Mr.
Beglitis stated that there was no communication between them.

Greek foreign ministry circles stated that for the moment
there is no clear picture of the election results. However,
according to information from Belgrade, Milosevic is clearly ahead
in Montenegro and Kosovo with a 6 to 1 ratio, while in other
cities opposition candidate Voiclav Kostunica gets over 60% of the
votes.

Meanwhile, Mr. Papandreou left for Sydney today where he will
stay until October 1 accompanied by general secretary of Greeks
living abroad Dimitris Dollis.

Greek prime minister Kostas Simitis in the meeting he had
with Yasser Arafat in New York within the framework of the UN
millennium summit, left open the likelihood for Greece to host a
meeting of Israelis and Palestinians. Ambassador Abdullah
Abdullah, head of the Palestinian diplomatic representation in
Greece, in an interview with MPA, stated that the Greek prime
minister confirmed to the Palestinian leader in their meeting in
New York that Greece can play a role in the solution of the Middle
East problem and left open the likelihood for an Israeli-
Palestinian meeting in Greece. Mr. Abdullah referring to the
prospects for the solution of the Palestinian issue, pointed out
that the problem will be solved sooner or later but a precondition
for this is that Israel will respect and implement the UN
decisions. The Palestinian ambassador stated that the United
States must exert pressures on Israel to implement the UN
decisions if they want peace to be preserved in the Middle East
while, at the same time, he underlined that Yasser Arafat with the
decision to postpone the Palestinian state declaration offered
another chance to peace in the region.

Mr. Abdullah stated that there was a progress made in Camp
David and the proof of this success was that the Israelis agreed
to put on the negotiating table all the issues dividing the two
sides. He said that they agreed to discuss the issue of Jerusalem,
the return of the refugees, the Jewish settlements, borders and
security. This is regarded as a step on the road to success. The
second step in the same direction is for Israel to recognize the
principles based on which peace talks had started namely, to
withdraw from all the territories it occupied in 1967, as it did
in the front of Egypt and Jordan, the full implementation of the
UN Security Council decisions as it already happened in the fronts
with Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, and as they have already promised
that they will be implemented in the front of Syria as well as,
the implementation of the UN Security Council decision 194 for the
return of the refugees, stressed Mr. Abdullah. The Palestinian
diplomat also underlined that the Israelis while initially were
categorically denying to discuss certain issues slowly give
way reaching a point where they discuss issues that until recently
were forbidden for them.

Israel can not continue for ever to disregard the UN
decisions as those decisions are the decisions of all member-
nations, including those which support Israel like the United
States. This means that there is a progress in their positions but
this progress is not enough. There will be a solution because it
is to the interest of the Palestinians, the Israelis and all the
people in the region. However, whether this solution is close it
depends on how much the Israeli leadership is willing to recognize
reality. Always, the Israeli governments move with a very slow
pace. It took 22 years for them to withdraw from South Lebanon and
they paid the cost dearly both in material and in human terms,
added Mr. Abdullah.

Referring to the issue of east Jerusalem, which is a thorn in
the peace negotiations, Mr. Abdullah pointed out that the
implementation of the UN decision 242 means the withdrawal of the
Israeli forces from all those regions. He said that since the year
636 when the city came under the Arab control it became the center
of Palestine and it continues to be until today. Jerusalem will
return as a capital of the state of Palestine. Jerusalem is the
center of culture, economy, politics and religion. The
Palestinians say that "there can be no Palestinians without
Palestine and no Palestine without Jerusalem". He said that
Jerusalem is not regarded as just the capital of the Palestinians
but the third holy place for over one billion Muslims. It is the
spiritual center for all the Palestinians, Christians and Muslims.
For the Palestinian Christians it is the holiest place. This is
the position occupied by Jerusalem in the conscience of every
Palestinian regardless of being Muslim or Christian, stated the
Palestinian ambassador.

Referring to the context of the Simitis-Arafat talks in New
York, Mr. Abdullah stated that Mr. Simitis shares a long
friendship with Mr. Arafat. Greece has a historic place in backing
the rights of the Palestinians and about a month ago, Greek
foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou had stated clearly that the
Palestinian state will be recognized as soon as it will be
declared.

The construction of the Center for the Dissemination of
Science and the Museum of Technology, part of which will be the
planetarium, will be completed in Thessaloniki by December 2002.
The center will be housed in a space of 49.000 square meters that
was donated by the municipality of Thermi. It will be made up of a
large parking space, a conference hall and a CD-ROM library. The
project is estimated to cost 6.5 billion drachmas and it will be
funded by the ministry of national economy and the European Bank.
The center will be divided into four sectors among them, a 150-
seat planetarium where new digital technologies will be used for
the projection and re-enactment of celestial data.

Yesterday's presidential elections in the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia were trouble-free, according to the chairman of the
Greek Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Karolos
Papoulias who is presently in Belgrade.

As the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported, Mr. Papoulias
stated that "the Greek government and I personally are opposed to
sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia and ask for their immediate lift."

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the U.S. Democratic Party
Chris Spyrou also seconded Mr. Papoulias view on the elections,
by stating that he did not notice any irregularities in the voting
process.

"The present conditions allow the voters to freely and
democratically express their will," he characteristically stated.

Mr. Papoulias, who was personally invited by the neighboring
country, was also accompanied by a parliamentary delegation.

The European Union announced today that any statement by
Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic claiming victory in
yesterday's presidential elections will be a "fraud".

In a statement issued by the French EU presidency it is
stressed that the high participation of the voters in the
elections shows that the people want to take destiny into their
own hands. The Yugoslav people wanted to express their views in
spite of the intimidation and the pressures exerted by the
Milosevic regime before and during the elections.

According to the statement, the EU is in close contact with
the United States, Russia, the UN mission in Kosovo and the OSCE..